Volusia council searches for answers to boost tourism

Everyone seems to agree the county gets lackluster results from the $14.2 million in tax dollars it spends each year to lure tourists and conventions.

By Dinah Voyles Pulverdinah.pulver@news-jrnl.com

As tourism continues to rebound in many Florida communities, Volusia County finds itself mired in politics, controversies and a fractured approach to attracting visitors. Disagreement persists over the path forward. But everyone seems to agree the county gets lackluster results from the $14.2 million in tax dollars it spends each year to lure tourists and conventions.“There's just got to be a better way of doing things,” said Volusia County Councilman Pat Patterson, expressing a sentiment shared by many local leaders. “We've got to get a handle on this and make sure the money is spent wisely.”Given the surging tourism elsewhere and the area's own coming wave of new hotels and attractions, State Sen. Dorothy Hukill said it's “more important than ever to solve the problems.”It would mean putting to rest decades of debate, fears and distrust.Three separate groups, each with their own tax district, promote tourism in Volusia. The Halifax Area Advertising Authority promotes greater Daytona Beach, including conventions. The Southeast Volusia Advertising Authority markets the New Smyrna Beach area, while the West Volusia Advertising Authority promotes DeLand and nature-based tourism on the west side. In addition, the Ocean Center is marketed separately by the county.No other county in Florida does it this way.Some wonder whether it's time to merge into a single, more efficient organization promoting tourism countywide. Others fear a single agency would create more controversy, turf wars and a bigger bureaucracy. Even if such a shift doesn't happen, the County Council, which appoints all three boards, could choose to take a stronger role in financial oversight, a step several council members agree is needed.

The talk of new controls or a new organization cropped up most recently after questions were raised about the accountability of the Daytona Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau, the marketing and administrative arm of the Halifax authority, and about a $10,000 marketing agreement between the Southeast authority and an online news website in New Smyrna Beach.Meanwhile, county officials await results from a Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation into alleged mishandling of funds by a former executive director of the Southeast authority.After reading News-Journal accounts of the latest troubles, Daytona Beach native Donna Craig penned a letter to The News-Journal asking why there isn't just one countywide group. Such a change would have to come from the state Legislature, starting with the local delegation, which created the authorities. “It's a good question,” Hukill said.It's also something others wonder about, including Sean Belgrade, a Halifax board member and former chairman. Each area has “unique, wonderful assets,” Belgrade said, but “we seem very fractured.” Belgrade, vice president of marketing at Daytona International Speedway, echoed others in pointing out the ad authorities are “a microcosm of bigger issues, individual chambers and economic development programs.”Hukill and state Reps. David Santiago and David Hood said they'd be willing to talk about creating a single tourism promotion authority — if the community is ready. Santiago, R-Deltona, who has set a goal to work toward a more united Volusia on all fronts, suggested a community dialogue to gauge the interest.

No one seems able to pinpoint how or when the county became so fractured, each area distrustful of others.The fears — of not maintaining unique identities or getting a fair share of the promotional money — wouldn't be there without some reason, Hukill said. “But the fear may have lost its reason at this point.”At least part of the distrust probably began in the mid-1980s.The Legislature created the Halifax tax district in 1984 at the request of local hoteliers.Meanwhile, local chambers promoted tourism in Southeast Volusia and DeLand, with money bestowed by the County Council.But then, after the County built the Ocean Center in 1985, the council made the “very controversial” decision to divert the annual stipend to the chambers to use the money for the Ocean Center instead, said Clay Henderson, on the council at that time. That caught the attention of State Rep. Jack Ascherl, who pushed through a bill in 1987 to create two additional tourism districts, with a tax on overnight room rentals like the one in place in East Volusia. The bill's language was so unique to Volusia it specified only counties separated by State Road 415 could create multiple tourism tax districts, said Henderson.At first the new money went to the chambers, but eventually separate offices were created with separate budgets and less county oversight, Henderson said.The hope from the beginning was that the groups would work together to market the county as a whole, he said. “But we haven't gotten very far.”Current County Councilman Doug Daniels, who represents northeast Volusia, said the county “is moving sideways” while most other destinations in Florida are setting records.

In 2011, the county commissioned a countywide tourism marketing study to look at the issues, agreeing from the outset it wouldn't discuss consolidation, because it's a legislative issue and fearing the subject would be too divisive.The $100,000 study was released earlier this year and the Council adopted six of its 10 recommendations. A recommendation that wasn't adopted addressed one of the long-time controversies between the tourism authorities and the county: marketing and booking of the Ocean Center. A separate three percent room tax countywide pays the debt on the center's 2009 expansion and part of its operational expenses, but the county also uses $1.2 million annually in sales taxes to help pay operational costs and marketing, conducted separately from the tourism groups. The study recommended a group sales marketing plan for the Ocean Center and convention bureau, a single unified approach. At a meeting to discuss the study in April, Councilman Josh Wagner moved to approve the item, but it died for lack of a second. Instead, the Council moved to ask the HAAA board for money to market the Center.Earlier this month, the HAAA board voted to give the county $400,000 of the $750,000 it had requested. That decision was one of several tourism controversies in early August. Another was the future of the visitor's bureau. Originally created with more flexible accounting and a structure its designers hoped would exempt it from state public records laws, the purpose and spending of the visitors bureau had become a little too murky for some.At the Aug. 8 council meeting, after questions were raised about spending, the council voted unanimously to ask the Halifax board to stop funding the bureau.In Southeast Volusia, concern arose over whether County Chair Jason Davis was wielding influence over the process of choosing the authority's contractors.Davis insisted he was a neutral party.Council members, also concerned about the role of the authority's chairman, Palmer Wilson, in securing the $10,000 marketing agreement for $1 less than the amount that would have required a full board vote, voted on Aug. 8 to remove Wilson from the board. At the same time, Wagner was taking heat for his discussions with HAAA board members about the county's request for Ocean Center marketing money.But, Councilwoman Pat Northey said last week she doesn't think council interference is causing problems. “I think we're probably not meddling enough,” she said.

The central issue and argument most often used against one agency is the conviction that “unique assets” in each area must be marketed differently. When marketing veteran Jeffrey Hentz was brought in a little over a year ago to head up the Visitors Bureau and HAAA, he found the divided approach to tourism marketing “unusual.” Hentz said he has since come to understand the three unique destinations. However, he said it's possible a unified group could work, with careful planning and the “right approach,” including leaving a “field general” in each area to focus specific activities.Bob Davis, CEO of the Hotel and Lodging Association of Volusia County, helped create the three authorities. He said it would be “a disaster to put all three together as one.”State Rep. Dwayne Taylor, D-Daytona Beach, said the current system allows the authorities “to focus on those areas that they know best.”He and others point to the trails, springs and St. Johns River in West Volusia and DeLand and the high-end condominiums and upscale image of New Smyrna Beach. Councilwoman Deb Denys, who represents Southeast Volusia, said many officials and hoteliers in Southeast and West Volusia worry about being “overpowered” by the Daytona Beach market.Others question whether parochial thinking needs to go.They point to areas such as the Florida Keys, where Monroe County has one tax district for the entire 120-mile length of islands. Its Tourist Development Council uses half the money to promote the overall area, then separate committees split the rest, promoting each area with the remaining taxes collected in that area.“It's time for us to stop thinking about east, west, north, south,” said Rep. Hood, R-Ormond Beach. “If we can provide more services for a better price, then end of story.” The current council members remain divided over consolidation, and all pointed out the ultimate decision rests with the Legislature. “I think many of us would agree it's needed, we just don't want to be blamed for it,” said Patterson, a former state representative who now represents northwestern Volusia on the council.Daniels and Denys oppose consolidation. Daniels, who also opposes creation of any kind of administrative umbrella, said the three separate groups “better serve the communities.” Northey, who represents Southwest Volusia, an area expected to be most resistant to talk of consolidation, said she's not sure if there's “enough trust” to entertain the concept right now. Other council members — Wagner, Joyce Cusack and Davis — all said last week they'd be open to looking at the possibility.

For at least the short-term, many county officials and legislators would like to see more direction and spending oversight. The problem with the authorities, said Daniels, is they “seem to have been slush funds, with no real oversight.”He and others said the county must take a stronger role in the financial accounting to make sure the money is being spent where it's supposed to be and that expenditures are reasonable and legitimate.The Council remains frustrated with the controversies in Southeast Volusia. “My community wants this cleaned up,” Denys said.Several council members have raised the possibility of an administrative umbrella or requiring expenditures to be approved through the county, one of the study recommendations the council approved.County Attorney Dan Eckert said some aspects of that would be possible under current rules.Hentz said he thinks the three groups could pull together and “better market our three destinations, as kind of a shared resource, without taking away the individuality.”He said he could see the groups sharing “buying, accounting and database collection and retrieval.” Community leaders and council members also said the council could effect immediate change by more carefully selecting board appointments and instituting better training and direction.“We have to have the right people with the right skill sets to transform a tourism industry that's crippled in personalities and politics,” Denys said.Northey, who serves as chairman of the county Tourist Development Commission, which oversees the Ocean Center, met personally with nearly every member of the three tourism boards this summer.She remains hopeful about the future, especially with large events such as the Shriner's convention approaching, major developments on the beachside in Daytona and the renovation and expansion of Daytona International Speedway. “If there was ever an opportunity for the advertising authorities to work on a project,” the convention is it, said Northey.“It's going to take everybody countywide working together to make that successful.”As for letter writer Donna Craig, she hopes local officials will get tourism promotion back on track.She said it's “an opportunity they seem to be missing.”